Steam Pulls Earth: Year 2066 From Early Access, Offers Refunds

Following a high level of player criticism, the game Earth: Year 2066 has been pulled from Steam Early Access, and refunds are being issued for those who purchased the game.

In a statement on the game's Steam page, Valve offered the following statement:

On Steam, developers make their own decisions about promotion, features, pricing and publication. However, Steam does require honesty from developers in the marketing of their games.

We have removed Earth: Year 2066 from Early Access on Steam. Customers who purchased the game will be able to get a refund on the store page until Monday May 19th.

Other than being a terrible game, according to player feedback, Earth: Year 2066 was apparently built using assets that come included with the Unity development kits along with other assorted art assets used without permission.

Our TakeSteam Early Access can be a dangerous gamble, but for the most part developers have been using it effectively for its intended purpose. This is one of the cases where it looks like Steam Early Access was used purely to make some money from an incomplete game. Steam doesn't often give refunds or have many options in general to get money back on purchases, but this along with other recent changes, shows the popular PC game distributor is starting to change its ways in a positive way.